1. Mike, Jase and Mark at Area 52, for the work done in the run up and also for the support at the event
2. Gary at APT for helping to sort some of the boost issues pre event and for the information to wire in the AVCR
3. Paul at Zen for making it handle so well and for coming out of his way to try and rescue my old ECU last week
4. Peter Bugden(Budgie) for lending me an ECU
5. Simon Roe for dropping by for a few hours to get the car running
6. Alyn at ASP for great supply of parts and advice
7. Jason for letting me use his workshop and helping me to do the last few steps on the preparation
8 SwissTony for the Laptop that arrived at the circuit so that I can be back up and running with datalogging/mapping
9. Rachel and Annabelle for being understanding at being almost completely ignored for the last two weeks.
Anyway onto a report.....
Saturday ----------------
Having got everything sorted as far as I could before the event, we headed up to the Gilburn B&B in Shepshed on Saturday lunchtime to find a very warm welcome by Malcolm the owner. We were looked after so well and installed in a lovely clean room with comfy beds and good sized bathroom. Will definitely stay there again. Perfect
We headed up to the circuit and found Gary at APT to see his damaged car that he had put into the tyre wall that afternoon
and to chat with the BigPower massive hoping to be there in time to see Bladey in the Final of the drifting. This wasnt to be but he can tell his own story lol.Rob Barnes suggested that I might like to bring up the car for scruitneering that night so we headed back and I grabbed the car to get it through and get signed on for the morning meaning that we didnt have to get up quite so early. Duly passed and back to the hotel and try and scrub the tyres in on the way home :lol:
I had booked a table at a local indian restaurant that evening for a minimum of 15 but ended up being 25 of us in there - superb evening even though we were split into a couple o groups but a great way to pass the evening in some great company :thumb:
Sunday ----------------
Woke up early - I knew I would hardly sleep - and opened the windows to find 3-4 inches of snow !! Not ideal for track action but it will certainly be interesting.
We had a lovely full english breakfast and plenty of coffee served up by malcolm at Gilburn and packed up and ready, headed up to the circuit for the day's fun.... gingerly on 888's
The track was wet and partly slushy but skies were clear so it was going to get better.
Duly briefed then out for the first warm up session .... jeeesh was it slippery !! Luckily i was prepared for it being that way so was making reasonable progress in 3rd place in the session with a 1.38 until it was stopped for 15 minutes due to a couple of accidents. They re-commenced the session and I headed out for a another lap at the end of it to see what the grip was like on a drying track. It was still patchy as hell and on that lap came out of the chicane onto the pit straight sideways in a mini Olly Clarke way then shot up to Redgate, turned in beautifully followed by the back of the car coming right round on me. Remembering Bladey's drift advice I decided it was manfoot time and gave it some driftign fully round the corner. Love it
The session then ended - probably just as well as I was getting cocky. Ended up 8th.1st Practice was on a dry track but for some weird reason they decided to combine the two groups of 30 cars into one and made it a free for all for 40 minutes to get on track. It was a nightmare getting any free space but in the end I completed only 1 full lap in a time of 1.27 as the IC hose came off and I lost power from the engine, pulling off onto the inside of Coppice to wait for recovery. This stopped the session but it did mean testing the new tow hook - which passed the test perfectly (cheers Jason) Mark, Mike and Jase were right on it when I got back to the pits and got me back out there once they had made some minor changes to the breathing system too and went out for the end of the session for an out and back in lap to test that it was all ok. It was
We had a lunchtime briefing prior to the qualifying session and whilst this was happening the snow started to chuck down ... hmmm
This was the time that it had to count. I checked the car over and headed out. The car felt great but traffic was appalling with everyone intent on getting there own fast laps so had a few laps ruined until I made some free space. The car started being very tali happy on the corners at this point and I was trying harder and harder to get a good time in the open slot that I had found, went very wide on the exit of Mcleans onto the grass but not quite in the gravel, the car was pointing straight up towards the next corner so I just kept it nailed bouncing my way over the grass and back onto the track to try again. The next last was ruined by fuel surge out of Coppice so decided it was not going to happen for me and whatever my best time that I had done would have to do. Oil pressure appeared low at this point.
Heading back to the pits the marshall commented on the oil smoke from under the bonnet of my car - hmmm not good. Into the garage and carefully opening the bonnet revealed the mess of oil under there which had shot out of the dipstick. It was literally everywhere and was all over tyres aswell - explaining the lack of grip and the lower oil pressure at the end of the session. I had checked the oil before the session and may not have put it back in correctly or there may have been some crankcase pressure that pushed it out. Either way, the end result was a ruined session and potential problems elsewhere. The engine sounded perfect though. I cleaned up as much as I could and after staring at the oiley bay for ages I eventually closed the bonnet and started to pack up for the day as the 1.24.159 was not quick enough to qualify for the final. I needed another 2 seconds off that at least. I am sure that both car and driver could have done that but that will remain as pure speculation.
We said our goodbye and headed home but when going out of the pits the smoke plume behind my car started to grow. Initially I dismissed it as oil on the exhausts and these heating up but it just seemed too much. Rachel was following me in the other car and couldnt even see me. I stopped and checked and sure enough it was coming out of the exhaust so I rang Mike and told him I was coming backs to the pits. By the time we arrived back there 5 minutes later, he had already arranged for recovery and storage overnight and for the car to be brought to their place the next day. Very impressive
Initial diagnosis is that the turbo is the problem as the engine was smooth and quiet but until the turbo can be removed for inspection it is too early to say. All we had to do was wait for the Chris the recovery man to pick it up in the now heavily falling snow. He arrived after about an hour or so and loaded up we waved goodbye to the car.
Heyho, its just the way it goes sometimes and I am just glad that so many positives had come out of the weekend. Sure the to do list is now slightly bigger but big steps are not without issues.
Bring on Knockhill - this time with the kinks ironed out of the car
